Welcome 2018! January

Welcome to Sibshops 2018!

Our first trickle in activity of 2018 got our Sibshoppers designing their own deserted island. They were instructed to create a deserted island upon which they and their sibling with special needs would live for one full year by themselves.  Fortunately, their deserted island came with a magical treasure box which contained all the things they determined necessary for their survival! Whew...

Our Sibshoppers were asked to consider what they and their sib would need to survive as well as what luxury items would make them both more comfortable living on their island alone.

As always, our Sibshoppers were awesomely creative in determining what they needed and wanted (like a freshwater lake!) and what their sibs would be in need and want of (iPads!)

We got up and moving by breaking into smaller groups and doing our best to keep a balloon up in the air! This simple game put smiles on all the faces in the room.  The game got a tiny bit trickier as each group identified a pattern by which they had to keep the balloon in the air.  Rules were that you HAD to keep to your predetermined pattern and you could only touch the balloon one time on your turn (regardless of whether you purposefully touched it or it touched your body on accident--say from an errant hit by your team!).

One of our discussion activities for the day was a Bibliotherapy session.  Them there are fancy words for we read some books and discussed them.  We broke into three groups and read some books about siblings who have a brother or sister with special needs. Our awesome facilitators helped lead a discussion amongst our Sibshoppers as they read these stories.

Keeping our Sibshoppers busy and happy is a big, but super fun job.  We introduced a new game today called "Pulse". I think it was a hit!  Two teams compete against one another to send a pulse via hand squeezes to each member of their team and when it reaches their final member they are to race and be the first to grab the game winning ball. The pulse is sent though the team ONLY when the head of their team line sees that a coin has been flipped to land on heads.

In our years offering Sibshops, we have discovered that our Sibshoppers are awfully motivated to share their experience when offered a sweet treat! This game of "Roll A Treat" had Sibshoppers rolling dice to see who could roll a number 6 first.  Whoever landed a 6 first was able to choose a candy from the bag.  The candies were marked with numbers that corresponded to questions that they were then asked.  Questions included:

1.)  What you do you want people to know about your sib?

2.)  Do your friends get along with your sib?

3.)  How would you describe your relationship with your sib?

4.)  Do you think your sib knows he or she has special needs? If yes, what does that mean to him/her?

5.)  Does your sibling ever frustrate you? How?

6.)  If you had one wish for your sibling what would it be?     

We are grateful for our Sibshoppers who share their hearts with us.

                                  Synchronized Snack TDivide players into teams of two. Start a one-minute timer. Pairs must get a shower cap onto one teammate's head and cover the cap with shaving cream. Then the capless teammate, standing behind a tape or rope line a few feet away, tries to throw cheese puffs into the shaving cream. The team gets a point for every puff still on the cap when the minute is up.